see you again
by So Guhn
Summary: they have met before. Lelouch x Kaguya.


_see you again_** - PG - drama/romance - Lelouch/Zero x Kaguya**

The first time she heard his voice,

-it was probably something like attraction then. Her English, though not particularly good had not been bad (and then it came, trailing in- that not only could Zero speak English but also Japanese, and seemingly just as fluent- this was what had caught everyone's fancy that despite Zero's outfit, beneath it was someone of Japanese origin) she learned with the rest of the remaining Kyoto house (Suzaku aside), from Kirihara- that Zero certainly was not Japanese (and there had been a quirk about the old man's lips, but Kaguya found herself not exactly perceptive enough to pinpoint exactly _who_ it could be, perhaps-)

The second time she heard it his voice it had not been across the radio (as before, she had regretted not being able to record it and does from now on faithfully) instead she sees him upon an old television screen, they are strictly traditional where she lives, and while she understands the importance of the old she also understands the necessity and appeal of the new (move on).

How many more times she hears him, sees him, across a distance of wires and cables she does not know, only that she will meet him one day.

She does, and it strikes her. The fact that he wears a mask reminding her deceptively of old days and a festival she gives not a name.

She's sitting by the riverside, fireworks lighting the sky behind her. Hands folded under her knees, the night air is crisp from the heated food stalls and attractions. She's had enough of the heat for now. It's uncleared wood she's submerged herself in, sometimes when she was frustrated with how Suzaku would rather spend time _who knows where_ instead of his own _cousin_ (and future bride mind you)- it made her incredibly frustrated, so finding a place to be laid back and all on her own, it was a fine thing actually. Though a little lonely, she loved to be around people.

There's a rustle, of clothing? Of leaves and tattered flowers, and still the crack of fireworks over head (seen over the trees, bright bright light, coloured and dazzling, crackling) but she sees this every year, wears the same white and red hakama outfit every year (little priestess) every year this happens. Is it because her place of peace is new? (it reminds her of the monks, with their prayer beads wrapped loosely, yet tightly about their hanging wrists, how she wants to find serenity in the chaos, but she also wants to find happiness).

"Ah!"

It is a boy, wearing a black hakama outfit, white underlining the black fabric, the outfit is done up so neatly and tightly she surmises he does not wear the outfit often, or it would have looked more uniformly relaxed. A hand of his (pale) has stuck out as if to ask pardon, instead his mouth, his face hidden behind a mask- asks instead "Sorry, I didn't know any one else came here."

-_any one else came here._

Sticks in her mind, someone else- and she feels her lips form a smile.

Sharing is- "I didn't either."

Kaguya rises, dusting off the bottoms but not with any particular care, as if she didn't mind a bit of grass and dirt was stuck about the joints. She looks with interest at his mask, the mask of a fox, slanted eyes and sharp edges, she giggles behind her hand. The boy remains quiet, as if flustered, as if he needs to leave and sensing this urgency she steps forward to grab at his arm.

"You can't go yet, Kitsune-san!"

At this festival, in these woods- where else?

"What?" he starts, wanting to pull his arm away but unable to from her managing grip, she leads him to sit back where she had been, with all the air of a young lady who wants the gentleman to drink tea with her. She follows through, brightly chattering, "I barged in right? Since you are older I do believe."

(That's how gods were supposed to be.)

He gives a nervous touch to his mask, but allows himself to be dragged along to sit with her nonetheless.

"This is the time where you play tricks, is it not?"

"Not really."

Another giggle, before, relaxing solemnity- Kaguya thinks people place too much regard on their secrets, too much dark, if you are willing to smile, willing to hold your hand out gently, there are certain things that may be much easier to accomplish (deception is not a full platter), "But this place, is very peaceful isn't it?"

Another spurt of fire works, to have count down till the time they fall and dissolve into grey ash against the wall of dark sky, "It is."

Another sheltered wary response, she sits unlike before, with her knees and he has done the same, shifting uncomfortable now and then (then he is not used to it?) she figures he may be from the city, but since this place is also his spot (she is sharing it, and it elevates her, that there are so many places in the world yet two, three, four, a hundred people may share one spot though there laid others plenty empty)- that is probably not likely, but to ask a fox spirit how long he has been here, would be rude would it not?

His hair is a black, a dark, that is similar to hers, he speaks finely (and she does not know that he is not Japanese, she does not know that he is actually the one who takes up all of Suzaku's time, that he is and will eventually be-) They sit in the nearing silence, Kaguya looks on distracted, yet attentive to him all the same.

"Have you ever attended the festival before?" she says, pleasantly, a chime about her voice, about her pretty little girl's voice and it is a tone too on the verge of charming and cunning to remind him of (Nunnally's.)

"This is my first time," his fingers, his hands are prompt and orderly about him. Not the daring fist, not the concealed shadow to reach for a weapon, he was just well mannered.

But so was she (to a fault), she leans just a bit closer (not the way children do, but the way children do when they are imitating adults), a hand reaching out to clasp over his, but faltering, her finger tips brush against his knuckles before they withdraw and she sits back again.

"How strange! But you had a wonderful time, did you not? Perhaps next time you could come see me dance, I dance at the Temple you know," like sugared butterfly wings, petals could cross over water with the warm temperature her voice did bring. She is all smiles and amusement.

"I saw."

Her face colours but a little, that her invitation is a song already sung, but it fades and jubilancy heightens all the more, "Did you?" she strikes, a pose, hands finding them at her hips, as if to puff up in pride, the vestige of it was far from regal. A hand of his own almost comes to his mouth, but finding the mask there, he stifles it down. "I was splendid wasn't I?"

"Are you supposed to have that sort of attitude?"

"Of course!"

"I thought," those hands neatly all once again, she wants to make them flutter and distorted about with her own, flailing, and a few of his syllables seem off (he's a little tired) but she can understand him enough not to doubt him (his nationality), "that before one's gods you need to be humble."

Kaguya shakes her head, shoulders chittering, "I am a being the gods took pride in, enough to make. What is the matter with having some pride? It does make one often very happy."

"Or unhappy."

And she just nods, in agreement, a cheery expression and air about her still.

"Still, despite- I danced well."

She's half tempted to lift a lock of bound, semi-decorated hair up to his, to see- how do they compare, but he says something that makes her wonder, "You danced well. But I may not be the best judge. People dance differently from where I come from."

Without a pause she responds, a smile beaming and spreading ever wider on her face "Oh? The spirit world? How do they dance there?"

Her hands clasp before her, she leans in, ever forward on her knees, stretching over his own and peering into his face (mask) ever ready to be taught, he stumbles back a bit, hands clutching over the earth behind him. Regardless, she falters back when he gets to his feet, she looks after him curiously. He walks a few steps to dip his dirty hands into the small flowing stream aside them, washing them, drying them across his thighs.

"Shall I teach you?"

Delightedly, she gets to her feet as well, ever more quickly, somewhat touched by his extended preparation. Like a gentleman.

"It would please me very much."

She expects to mimic his motions, but instead, and forwardly he steps toward her, taking a hand up in his, directing the other to his shoulder, confusion follows her still when he places a hand about her hip. She knows this dance, knows it not every well, what she does know is that it is most certainly not- _Japanese_.

This boy- "Surprised?" and he takes her through the steps, there's no music and she asks him to hum some, but he tells her there is no need. They dance the waltz, smartly, and small- aside the trees and the grass, the air and the dirt. When he deems that she has learned it (and can dance well) he ceases their dancing, and his hands fall away from hers.

"That was-" she wants to say, but instead, amazement (whitewashed) from her face, her hands fold behind her back, her whispering smile comes all the louder. "Thank you."

He shakes his head; it has gotten stilly quiet, what little chattering they heard from the festival had died down. He probably needed to go. Kaguya feels her smile slip a bit and her brow crease. "You'll come next year, won't you?"

What she really wanted to know is that if she ever ran into someone here, would it be him? Would it be this fox, this- he doesn't say, or promise her anything on the topic, but instead he tells her. "Close your eyes."

And hoping for the best she does, black lashes, white skin she really was Kaguya(-hime), she feels something press against her face and tied back, by the time she opens her eyes the realization that he had placed the mask over her face... her eyes discover that his face has already turned away and she is barely able to catch the corner of it under the dark night. Her hands miss in catching his arm as once, before- and he is elusive, but her answer comes nonetheless from his mouth, "Good bye!"

He says it in English.

--

Her mother teases her, "What are you doing?"

"Studying," is Kaguya's reply, the need of etiquette, house-keeping, the basics, poetry, dancing, the like and some politics. That was why she existed. But also to be as a figurehead, she is a girl after all. She will marry though her heritage comes with power.

Her mother laughs, "Why do you look so intense about it?"

Kaguya resists smartly poking her tongue out, instead saying, cheerfully, "Because it'll sink in better this way."

Her mother, tucks back a kimono sleeve (lightly) fan about her face, she chuckles, "It's not like we're marrying you off to a Britannian, you don't need to learn the language _that well_."

Kaguya says something to her mother in English and her mother shrugs it off, not having learned much herself. Teasing her every once and while on how they _should_ have married her off to a foreigner.

--

Suzaku is talking to someone strange, he has very dark hair but is not, cannot be Japanese. She thinks she recognizes him from before but something (someone) is missing. With those clothes, and that stance, but Kaguya cannot hear them while they talk and by the time she gets closer, the dark haired boy has gone away, a sour expression over his face and Suzaku turning looking instead, amused (as if aggravation has passed on to the other) he's laughing to himself until he notices Kaguya, "What do you want?"

She squares her hands on her hips, whatever insulting retort Suzaku had been expecting he did not receive, "Who was that boy?"

"Why do you want to know?"

She thinks his voice was just so- she makes an almost angry noise in the back of her throat, "Why can't you just tell me?"

Suzaku begrudgingly tells her, "You know already."

"That Britannian Prince right, that-" and she stops talking, because she no longer wants confirmation she no longer needs- she doesn't want it because that would mean...

Her cousin regards her strangely, that her rapid fire speech does not continue was, "Kaguya."

She looks up (when had her face turned downward she starts to wonder), he continues almost hesitant in doing so-"I saw... that mask where did you get it?" he does not tell her in passing by, he had peeked into her room (his father had told him to visit her) and it had been on her desk, one that looked exactly like-

"What?" she responds, both eyebrows quizzically lift as if she had no idea what he was talking about. His ears turn a little red.

Suzaku turns his head away, expression disregarding, and waves a hand as his feet _pit-pat_ across the dirt trail, trees over hanging and casting shadows, something gentle crosses over his eyes and she does not see it- "Never mind, it's fine. Bye!"

She doesn't even look back at Suzaku, instead looking to where he had stood talking with that- and one minute, two minutes, before she too takes running across the path that Suzaku had just traveled over.

--

The next day she goes to the spot again, wearing the mask.

--

She goes every week until the war. They are no longer Japan, they are Area 11 and she flees into hiding with the rest of her family.

--

Sometimes she still went. When she had time, though years had passed and it was not entirely possible. (But anything, everything is possible.)

She hears footsteps behind her, accompanied by that voice she's heard a hundred times, a thousand times. A smile alights over her face, "Kaguya-sama?"

She turns to face him holding the mask over her face (the binding long snapped, other string necessary replacement) he can hear her smile rather than see it, she calls to him teasingly "Look! Look Zero-sama! We're similar now."

A chuckle, was the least she had expected with the amount of humour they often exchangd between the other. But he is silent, limbs motionless, sound entirely motionless, she moves the mask off from her face, an 'o' shaping her mouth in surprise, she almost asks him what the matter is. It is gathering- his response, she looks on ever patiently, the edge of the mask gripped in her hand, she does not cast it aside, the doors are closed, this room is closed.

"Kaguya-sama."

"Yes?" her dark hair bouncing with the tilt of her head, what she does not know is that he is thinking that serenity has followed her, she was unwavering, her faith toward him (that he will win.) If it is because she still has that pride (of that night), that she is a deciding factor in his win- he smirks, it would be like her, but he smirks behind the mask.

"Do you like dancing?"

Warmly smiling, nodding, "I do!"

"Then," and he offers a hand out to her, the other coming to clutch at his mask, lifting if off, mouth still covered, her eyes widen momentarily, his voice, deep, the side of a mountain, the top and very buried bottom- "-will you dance with me?"

Her smile never faltering she replies, delighted and taking his hand "It would be my pleasure!"

Now it was love.


End file.
